The present invention relates generally to the field of vehicle safety, and more particularly to techniques for alerting a driver to potentially hazardous situations.
When a person locks their keys in their vehicle, they find themselves in a very frustrating and embarrassing situation. The situation is potentially dangerous if a child or pet has been left in the locked vehicle. A standard feature in automobiles alerts drivers via a beeping sound when the driver leaves a key in the ignition and opens a door. However, this standard feature does not help the driver if the keys are left elsewhere in the car (for example, on a seat, or arm rest, or in a purse).
Another common problem encountered with the use of automobiles, is that people leave their children and pets unattended in the vehicle. If the child or pet is unable to exit from the car in a timely manner the car interior may become too hot or too cold, causing injury or death to the occupants.
It is known in the art to place pressure sensors in the seats of the vehicles (including child safety seats) to detect the weight of the passengers. The output from the sensor can run to an alarm to warn the driver of the presence of an occupant within the vehicle. The sensor can also warn the driver when one of the passengers vacates the seat while the vehicle is moving. Additionally, the output of the sensor may run to an air bag control system. However, these types of sensors and notification devices do not work if the child, or other occupant, is not in the proper seat, or if the occupants gained access to the vehicle and locked themselves in. Drivers may also mistakenly leave their groceries in the vehicle. Warm weather may cause the groceries to spoil and cause the vehicle to smell if left too long.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,236,968 entitled xe2x80x9cSleep Prevention Dialog Based Car Systemxe2x80x9d issued on May 22, 2001 in the names of Dimitri Kanevsky and Wlodek Wlodzimierz Zadrozny (referred to herein as the ""968 patent) and is hereby incorporated by reference herein. The ""968 patent is directed to an automatic dialog system capable of keeping a driver awake while driving during a long trip or one that extends into the late evening. The system in the ""968 patent is commonly referred to as an artificial passenger. The artificial passenger is designed to carry on a conversation with the driver on various topics utilizing a natural dialog system. Through this conversation and additional features described in the patent, the artificial passenger is configured to detect when a driver is falling asleep and to emit an audible alarm signal to wake the sleeping driver.
Prior art systems, however, do not notify persons besides those in the immediate vicinity of the vehicle who can hear the speaker delivering its message from under the hood of the vehicle. Also, these prior art systems do not have the ability to take corrective actions to remedy the potentially hazardous or undesirable situations discussed herein. Thus, a need exists for a system which will provide an alert indication to a driver or owner of a vehicle when an undesirable situation is detected which also has the ability to take corrective actions to remedy the situation.
The present invention provides apparatus and techniques for providing an alarm indication to an owner or driver of a vehicle to indicate potentially hazardous or undesirable conditions. An advantage of the present invention is that it is configured to monitor the environment of a vehicle and provide an alarm indication to an owner or driver of the vehicle regardless of the location of the owner or driver. Additionally, the present invention is configured to have the ability to take preventative and/or corrective actions with respect to the potentially hazardous or undesirable situation.
Accordingly, in a first aspect of the present invention, a situation controller for a vehicle is provided. The situation controller includes a processing device and an image monitor coupled to the processing device, for monitoring images associated with one or more items within the vehicle. The situation controller also includes a device for communicating a message relating to the one or more monitored items wherein the content of the message is determined by the processing device based at least in part on the one or more monitored items. Additionally, a controller coupled to the processing device, for controlling at least one function of the vehicle in response to the one or more monitored items within the vehicle, is included.
In a second aspect of the present invention, a camera system is combined with an artificial passenger system (also referred to herein as a xe2x80x9cvehicle system situation controllerxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9csituation controllerxe2x80x9d) to monitor an environment of a vehicle and provide an alarm indication to the owner. The camera system identifies the position of keys, for example, and notifies the driver that he or she has left the keys in a particular spot in the vehicle. Thus, the present invention will warn the driver against accidentally locking the keys in the car.
In accordance with a third aspect of the present invention, the artificial passenger is connected to a temperature indicator to analyze the temperature in the vehicle. Thus, in combination with the camera, the artificial passenger is able to determine that a child or pet has been left in a vehicle that it is beginning to get very hot or cold. If the temperature gets too hot or too cool inside the vehicle, the artificial passenger has several options including sending a message to the owner/driver, calling the owner""s phone or beeper, calling the police, opening a window or a door, and sounding an alarm to get the attention of people walking by the vehicle (as well as allowing them to open the door to help the occupant). The artificial passenger is able to analyze the situation and execute a corrective action, which includes opening a window or a door to allow the temperature to moderate or to allow the child or pet to leave the vehicle, after the artificial passenger has notified the driver or authorities.
In a fourth aspect of the present invention, the artificial passenger is configured to analyze the situation to determine, for example, whether groceries were left in the vehicle. If the owner did not remove all of the groceries, the artificial passenger will call the owner and tell him or her that the groceries were left in the vehicle. The artificial passenger utilizes an odor detector or sensor as well as the camera to detect whether groceries were left in the vehicle.
In accordance with a fifth aspect of the invention, a communication system that interacts with the owner of the vehicle from a remote location is provided. The communication system utilizes, for example, the Internet and/or a global positioning system (GPS) to locate and communicate with the vehicle owner. Through the communication system, the owner can, for example, open a vehicle door remotely such that a person can enter the locked vehicle.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments, which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings.